The prices are $12.50 a hundredweight for hard varieties 2 ½ inches and up, and $10 for soft varieties of that size. No price was negotiated for juice or undersize apples.

Six processors are in agreement with the prices, according to Dawn Drake, manager of the Processing Apple Growers. Those processors are Coloma Frozen Foods, Gerber Products, Knouse Foods, Peterson Farms, Pinnacle Foods, and Smeltzer Orchard Co.

Burnette Foods, Cherry Growers, Inc., Indian Summer, and Materne USA opted out of the negotiations.

The announcement was made just the day before the USApple meeting in Chicago, where the size of the national (and international) crop will be discussed and a number agreed upon by industry leaders.

Prices negotiated this year are very similar to those negotiated last year and in 2011. Prices were higher in 2012, the year of the very small Eastern crop. In previous years, prices were announced in a wider group of categories than just hard and soft, big and small.

No juice price was announced last year, as the supply situation has been quite volatile. Three processors said they will purchase juice apple, with prices determined at time of sale. These are Aseltine Cider, Peterson Farms, and Gerber Products.

After growing up on a Michigan dairy farm, Richard Lehnert began writing about farming in 1962, while still a junior studying journalism at Michigan State University. He worked at newspapers for a year before joining the staff of Michigan Farmer, where he spent 26 years, the last 15 as chief editor. He joined the staff of Good Fruit Grower in 2010.
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